Abstract
Public opinion means different things to different people and it has changed its meaning over the years. Whereas Jeremy Bentham defined it as ‘a system of law emanating from the body of the people’, Robert Peel defined it as ‘that great compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy and newspaper paragraphs’.1 A.V. Dicey was more charitable when he defined it as ‘the wishes and ideas as to legislation held by ... the majority of those citizens who have ... taken an effective part in public life’.2 On the other hand, V.O. Key was more cynical when he defined it as ‘those opinions of private persons which Governments find it prudent to heed’.3
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Further Reading
Clemens, J., Polls, Politics and Populism (London: Gower, 1983).
Johnson, N., In Search of the Constitution (London: Methuen, 1980).
Jowell, R. et al., British Social Attitudes (London: Gower, 1990).
Ranney, A. (ed.), The Referendum Device (Washington, D. C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1981).
Teer, F. and Spence, J. D., Political Opinion Polls (London: Hutchinson, 1973).
Worcester, R. M. and Harrop, M. (eds), Political Communications (London: Allen & Unwin, 1982).
Wybrow, R. J., Britain Speaks Out, 1937–87 (London: Macmillan, 1989).
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© 1991 F. N. Forman
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Forman, F.N. (1991). Public opinion. In: Mastering British politics. Macmillan Master Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11203-6_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11203-6_8
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